The Mars Curiosity rover has sent back panoramic sand dune pics that show the stark beauty of the Red Planet in amazing detail like something computer-created for a science-fiction movie.
The panorama, posted Monday by NASA, was created from images taken in mid-December that were put together to create the entire landscape view of the Bagnold Dunes field, according to NASA's website.

"This view of the downwind face of 'Namib Dune' on Mars covers 360 degrees, including a portion of Mount Sharp on the horizon," the space agency wrote. "The site is part of the dark-sand 'Bagnold Dunes' field along the northwestern flank of Mount Sharp."

The sand dunes in Bagnold shift about three feet every Earth year, a determination made by images taken from orbit.

NASA experts adjusted the panoramic photo to a white balance that reflects colors as they would be seen on Earth, the website said. The image, which displays a portion of the Curiosity rover near the bottom, shows the dune nearest the rover is about 23 feet from the camera. The center of the photo is toward the east.

The Internet community loves to keep up with space, that final frontier, and photos from NASA frequently get thousands of "likes" and retweets. The Curiosity Rover Twitter account has 2.18 million followers.